1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recording medium on which digital data having audio information and video information is recorded in a rewritable state, and a recording apparatus and a reproduction apparatus for such a recording medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
As recording media on which digital data is recorded in a rewritable state, mini discs (MD) are conventionally known. An MD has a recording capacity of 140 MB. An MD carries digital audio data recorded in a compressed state, so that audio information lasting about 75 minutes can be recorded on the MD. Many of users who have bought a music CD wish to record music information consisting of ten or more pieces recorded on the CD on an MD. This style of listening to music information recorded on an MD has been widely spreading.
With the recent progress of the optical disc technology, a rewritable recording medium having a large capacity, such as a DVD-RAM (digital versatile disc random access memory), has been developed. A DVD-RAM has a recording capacity of 4.7 GB, which is 30 times or more as large as that of an MD. While an MD can only carry music information consisting of ten or so pieces, a DVD-RAM can carry music information consisting of a hundred or more pieces.
Due to recent wide-spread Internet technology, music distribution by so-called electronic commerce (EC) is gaining popularity, where users retrieve favorite music data from a home page by downloading via their personal computers and settle the account by a settling means such as a credit card. By combining such a music distribution via Internet (hereinafter, referred to as an electronic music distribution) with the DVD-RAM, an environment in which users can easily record a huge amount of music data on one recording medium has been gradually realized.
However, the conventional recording media have the following problems.
An MD has only one information unit which defines the reproduction order of music data recorded on the MD (i.e., a table of contents (TOC)). Such a TOC is used to define the reproduction order of all music data recorded on the MD. Therefore, it is not possible to define the reproduction order of only specific music data among all the music data recorded on the MD.
Some reproduction apparatuses used for reproducing information from an MD have a program reproduction function capable of reproducing only selected specific music data in a predetermined order. Such an order of music data programmed using the program reproduction function is held in the reproduction apparatus only temporarily, and is deleted when the disc is replaced with another one. Therefore, the user must program the reproduction order of music data and the like whenever the disc is reproduced.
Since a large number of music data are recorded on a large-capacity recording medium such as a DVD-RAM, the user finds difficulty in identifying the respective music data recorded on the recording medium. For example, it is considerably troublesome for the user to select a plurality of music data from a recording medium carrying a hundred or so music data and define the reproduction order of the selected plurality of music data.
The recording medium of this invention is recorded with a plurality of digital data and a plurality of reproduction path information defining a reproduction order of the plurality of digital data, wherein the plurality of reproduction path information includes first reproduction path information defining a reproduction order of all of the plurality of digital data recorded on the recording medium and second reproduction path information defining a reproduction order of at least one of the plurality of digital data recorded on the recording medium.
Alternately, the recording medium of this invention is a recording medium for recording a plurality of digital data and reproduction path information defining a reproduction order of a plurality of digital data, wherein at least one of the plurality of digital data is digital data which has not been recorded on the recording medium, and the reproduction path information includes flag information indicating whether or not each of the plurality of digital data has been recorded on the recording medium.
In one embodiment of the invention, the reproduction path information includes address information indicating a location from where the digital data will be obtained.
According to another aspect of the invention, a recording apparatus for recording information on the recording medium according to the present invention is provided. The recording apparatus includes: a generator for generating the plurality of reproduction path information; a recorder for recording the plurality of digital data and the plurality of reproduction path information on the recording medium; and an editing section for editing at least the reproduction order defined by the second reproduction path information.
Alternatively, the recording apparatus of this invention for recording information on the recording medium according to the present invention includes: a controller for controlling obtaining the reproduction path information; and a recorder for recording the reproduction path information on the recording medium.
In one embodiment of the invention, when the flag information indicates that the digital data has not been recorded on the recording medium, the controller controls obtaining the digital data from outside the recording apparatus in accordance with the address information.
In another embodiment of the invention, the recording apparatus further includes an editing section for editing the reproduction path information.
According to still another aspect of the invention, a reproduction apparatus for reproducing information from the recording medium according to the present invention is provided. The reproduction apparatus includes: a retrieval section for retrieving selected reproduction path information among the plurality of reproduction path information recorded on the recording medium; and a reproduction section for reproducing at least one digital data of the plurality of digital data in accordance with the selected reproduction path information.
Alternatively, the reproduction apparatus of this invention for reproducing information from the recording medium according to the present invention includes: a retrieval section for retrieving the reproduction path information recorded on the recording medium; a controller for determining whether or not the digital data has been recorded on the recording medium based on the flag information in the reproduction path information; and a reproduction section for reproducing the digital data when the digital data has been recorded on the recording medium, or skipping reproduction of the digital data when the digital data has not been recorded on the recording medium.
According to still another aspect of the present invention, a program storage medium for storing a program which makes a computer record information on the recording medium according to the present invention is provided. The program storage medium includes the steps of: generating the plurality of reproduction path information; recording the plurality of digital data and the plurality of reproduction path information on the recording medium; and editing at least the reproduction order defined by the second reproduction path information.
Alternatively, the program storage medium for storing a program which makes a computer record information on the recording medium according to the present invention includes the steps of: controlling obtaining the reproduction path information; recording the reproduction path information on the recording medium; and obtaining the digital data from outside the recording apparatus in accordance with the address information when the flag information indicates that the digital data has not been recorded on the recording medium.
Thus, the invention described herein makes possible the advantages of (1) providing a recording medium which allows the user to specify music data to be reproduced among a large number of music data recorded on the recording medium and to specify the reproduction order of the selected music data quite easily, and (2) providing a recording apparatus and a reproduction apparatus for such a recording medium.
These and other advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading and understanding the following detailed description with reference to the accompanying figures.